Heroes and Thieves
by lucindasparks
Summary: An entire life of confidence and self-worth crumbles before her, and the words die on her tongue. Amorra. TW for rape/noncon, slight AU.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: Heroes and Thieves**

**Author: lucindasparks**

**Summary: An entire life of confidence and self-worth crumbles before her, and the words die on her tongue.**

**Genre: Angst, horror.**

**Rating: 14+, somewhere between T and M**

**Author's note: Major trigger warnings for rape. Oneshot, maybe twoshot if the feedback is good. Please review. I own nothing but an idea, and Bryan and Mike have the rest.**

* * *

Our hero hits the ground, face first. Her head cracks against the stone while her bottom lip splits on contact with the ground. She gasps against the dusty rock and runs her tongue around her mouth and lips, mopping up blood and broken teeth.

The ropes around her ankles tighten as they pull her roughly into the temple, _can they see me from here? Can they help? I need help. Oh gods, I need help._ She comes to a jerking, squirming stop and stills only at the sound of footsteps on the polished floor. She feels her scrapes oozing. She feels fear.

She defies the urge to close her lids and gazes with wide eyes into the darkness around her. Her breath comes faster as the footfalls grow louder, closer. She panics, kicking uselessly against her bonds.

"Avatar Korra."

Amon's voice, smooth and dangerous, kicks up a dust of dread in her mind. Screaming does not occur to her. _(Later she will wonder what could have been avoided with one simple breath.)_

What does occur to her, however, is to attack. Adrenaline sinks from her head down to her bound feet, making her fingertips tingle with unreleased fire. She reaches out to throw a stream of flame at her foe, but before she can release a single spark, _one-two-three-four_ and she's down. How long before chi-blocking wears off, she doesn't know. He straightens, staring down at her through his mask.

"I have waited so patiently for this opportunity, and here you have provided it for me."

Her arms are limp when she tries to pull herself up. There's a sharpness in her mouth and a hammering in her chest, there's terror all around her. _What do I do, what do I do, what do I do?_

She remembers her nightmares. _After I take your bending, you will be nothing._ Was he right? Of course bending wasn't the only thing that made people special- Pema was special, her parents were special- but for some reason she felt that she would have nothing left to lose afterward. She'd always been confident, never a lick of self-doubt in her until Amon.

His belt hits the floor with a clang, and her stomach drops. _No. No no no no no no no no no. _

And it happens.

Korra closes her eyes against the darkness and the tears don't come. This is unlike anything she ever imagined would happen to her. Even the idea of sex for procreation's sake was nothing like this- she knows sex for pleasure's sake is a million miles away because this hurts. This hurts in every way anything could. She aches in places she didn't know existed and in all the places she did. Her limbs are still limp.

He kisses her roughly- when had he taken his mask off? Why did he have to kiss her, a completely romantic gesture? What she did with Mako, what her past lives had done with their past lovers, that was romantic. Now she regrets not experiencing this with Mako- well, not _this_ this but this, in its most basic form, the way it was supposed to be for her first time.

Was this the showdown he had predicted, so long ago in this same temple? Had he planned on doing this to her? "I will destroy you," he had promised her.

And he has, she thinks, as he breathes her air and bites her bleeding lower lip and moans into her mouth._ He has._

Because what is hers now? What does she have left?

_I have…_ And in this moment, as he works over her and she feels him within her, him and every Avatar that ever existed, she at once understands him, really understands what they have done to his kind- in this moment she understands that he owns her not because of what he has done but because of what she has failed to do.

_Aang, Roku, Kyoshi…_ She lists in her head every Avatar she can remember. _I'm sorry. I'm sorry I let this happen. I'm sorry to have dishonored you all._

Because this is why Aang isn't coming to her rescue, right? The way Roku did for him? _It's okay,_ she thinks, and realizes the tears have come at last. _It's okay. I wouldn't help me either._

She barely acknowledges the thief through her tears as he moves away, breathing heavily. "It would be so easy," he begins, and a sob shakes loose from within her. "It would be so easy for me to take away your bending now. But I pity you, young Avatar."

Her attempts to control her tears result in hyperventilation. "Why?" She tries to say it as confidently as he does, but her voice barely shows itself and her question ends as a breathy whisper. _You may as well. You've taken everything else._

"Because this is not over." He leans forward, murmuring into her ear with the intimacy of a lover and the malice of a mortal enemy. "You are not safe yet. I will be back, I promise you that."

She believes him, and with that he replaces her clothes, touches her face _(painted with tears, will he lick them off his fingers, will he care to taste what he's done?)._ With that, he strikes her hard in the neck. With that, he vanishes.

Korra awakens some time later, aching and cold. She clenches her fist, bends her elbow, pushes herself into a sitting position. She looks down at her body, her wrinkled clothes and her_ (filthy)_ skin. Pulling herself onto her feet, he reties the pelt around her waist, feeling utterly numb. It is then that she notices the red stains on her pants, covered neatly by her pelt.

She is still screaming when Tenzin runs in. "Korra! What happened? Was Amon...?" He blinks down at her for a moment before putting his arms under hers and lifting her up to stand. "Korra, what happened?"

She pants for air. "I... yeah. He was here. He ambushed me by himself." She can't keep the shame from leaking into her voice.

Tenzin shakes her gently. She wants to knock his hands away, but knows the consequences. _For once._ "Did he... take your bending?"

Something breaks in her, not with the sharp, clear _snap_ of a bone but with the crunch of pulverized rock. She wants to shake him, scream in his face,_ is that the worst that could have happened to me? Is that really the most he could have taken?_ But seeing the pure worst-case-scenario concern on his face is too much and she just can't. An entire life of confidence and self-worth crumbles before her, and the words die on her tongue.

"No. I'm okay."


	2. Chapter 2

A hero has faced it all: he need not be undefeated, but he must be undaunted.

**Andrew Bernstein**

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"Korra! Oh, come here, you're bleeding."

Korra stiffens, _what, how does she…?_ before remembering her broken lip. She nervously feels the dried but oozing cut as she follows Pema into the bathroom, and doesn't wince when the motherly woman touches it with a wet cloth.

Pema sighs. "We'll have to call a healer. That's a big cut."

"I can do it." Raising some water from the basin, Korra lets it coat her fingers and touches the gash, holding it there. She looks away awkwardly. "I'm okay."

From down the hallway, a baby begins to cry.

"Oh, that's Rohan..."

"You can go to him. I promise, I'm fine." Korra smiles as reassuringly as she can, and with some convincing, Pema leaves.

She removes her hand from her lip and lets the water leak through her fingers into the sink. The cut is gone now, but the dried blood remains. She picks up the rag Pema left and scrubs her face gently. She's numb.

Quietly, she leaves the cloth hanging on the faucet and goes to her room. She's almost surprised when everything is exactly as she left it. Korra has never thought of her room as a haven before, but now, the dusty bookshelf and the clothes leaking from their drawers are a reminder of when everything was really and truly okay.

_I'm still me. I'm still me. He didn't take that. I'm still Korra, I'm still the Avatar. I can't let this shake me. I have to be fearless._

Naga awakens, showing all her teeth when she yawns. She stands, padding over to where Korra is, by the door. When she gets close, she begins to sniff her everywhere, whining slightly.

"Yeah. I know, girl." She pushes away the urge to cry again and kneels down, wrapping her arms around her polarbeardog's neck. "I'll be alright. You can keep a secret, right girl? I did something bad." She gives her a watery smile, scratching her behind the ears as Naga licks her face. Rather than letting the saliva dry on her cheek, she paces into the bathroom. She turns on the water and doesn't wait for it to get warm, splashing icy water on her face and tasting the salt from her sweat as it drips over her lips. She kneads her fingers over her nose, rubs her eyes.

Korra grabs a towel from the bar where it hangs, patting her face dry. Only now does she allow herself to look in the mirror.

Silently, she traces her features with her fingers, as if the sensation of her own skin brushing her lips will dissolve the sensation of his mouth on hers. _See? All gone. All better. We're good._

Before she knows it, the tears have risen in her throat again and she claps her hands over her mouth and eyes as a strangled sob escapes her. Wiping away the moisture, she stares at her reflection and tries not to think.

She turns away and clicks off the light, closes the bathroom door behind her.

_I'm the Avatar. I'm bigger than this. _

Still, that's hard to believe. She's never felt so small, or so dirty.

The tears stop as she tugs her shirt over her head and steps out of her boots and pants, leaving them on the floor. The underwear is burned in her hand.

Finally, she glances out the window, toward the early morning city. The chaos is invisible from where she is, but she assumes there must be some. Amon had challenged her this time; where he was now she didn't know, but his Equalists must be around. She shoves the thought away, _not now,_ and throws herself, naked, onto her mattress. She wraps the blanket around her rather than sliding beneath them. She stares at the ceiling, and she finally falls asleep as the sun rises through her window.


End file.
